Sunday, June 10, 2012

Poland, whose
chief worry these days is to count the score, goals and seconds, has expectedly
faced more than just Euro Cup-related problems. On Jun 8 Warsaw authorities have
registered the application of Russian fans, willing to march through the centre
of Polish capital, celebrating the Russia Day (June 12). Thus, we are getting a
unique opportunity to compare the Moscow march against the one in Warsaw.

Just like any
other country, Poland is far from being politically uniform. With a certain
degree of understatement we may say that today the county is split into three
major factions, featuring three different kinds of political attitude to
Russia. The first one is the supporters of rightist-liberal Civil Platform of
Donald Tusk, a party that stays in power for the second time in a row. The
second one is the ultra-right “mohair berets”, who stand for PiS (the
brainchild of the late President Lech Kaczynski’s brother Jaroslaw). The third
one is those voters, who back the enfante
terrible of Polish politics — Janusz Palikot, a millionaire, who has made
his fortune selling vodka, philosopher by education, leftist-liberal
anti-clerical politician, who stands up for legalization of soft drugs.
Palikot, being a man of pragmatic principles, keeps his opinion regarding the assumed
Russian march to himself.

Civil Platform
treats the initiative of Russian fans with the greatest politeness possible
(given the circumstances of Polish political life). Warsaw President Hanna
Gronkievicz-Waltz, former Chair of Polish Central Bank and the member of the
ruling party, does her best to neutralize the negative Polish reaction to the
upcoming political performance. Since a massive political rally of foreigners,
who don’t even live in the said country is not what you call an ordinary event
(neither is it stipulated by the Polish legislation — imagine American rally at
the Sochi Olympic Games, timed to Abraham Lincoln birthday, which,
coincidentally, happen to be on Feb 12), resourceful Madam Hanna has announced
that this would be merely a “passing of Russian fans to the stadium, where
Russia is to play against Poland”. Our national team resides at the
Warsaw-based Bristol hotel, which is situated at the historical centre of the
city, at the Krakowskim PrzedmieściuStreet, right beside
the presidential palace, and that complicates the situation furthermore.
Everything in this place reminds of our uneasy shared history.

Even the
presidential palace itself was previously called the governor’s palace (Pałac Namiestnikowski) and it hosted
the Serene prince of Warsaw Ivan Paskevicz, who was awarded with the title for
suppressing the Polish tumult in 1830. Nowadays, supporters of the late
President Kaczynski gather by the palace each tenth of the month to commemorate
his memory. Most of them put the blame for Smolensk catastrophe, which claimed
the lives of 96 members of Polish political establishment, on Russia. All these
things combined have triggered the negative PiS reaction to the Russian
initiative. Prominent Polish columnist and documental movie director WVitold
Gadowski has published an article under a following headline: “March of liberators. An aggressive rally amidst the city hosting a gigantic
event cannot but cause apprehensions.” Gadowski believes the march
to be a “well-planned action that intends to humiliate Poles in their own capital,
a clear signal of the imperial comeback and a message to NATO — ‘Poland is
ours, not yours’”. Another thing that filled the Polish journalist with
indignation was the symbolism of the USSR (which the rally surely won’t be able
to get by without), “the state, whose dictator allowed Germans to kill Warsaw
citizens and devastate the city”. Solidarity 2010 (radical wing of PiS party)
also prepares itself for the Russian march. They are going to hit Warsaw
streets with the mottos like “Europe, open your eyes”, “Putin on the attack”,
“Polish President was killed in Russia on Apr 10, 2010” and “Do you believe
Putin, the KGB agent?” Gazeta Wyborcza is even making sorrowful jokes about the
forthcoming second battle for Warsaw, implying at the failed Bolshevist crusade
against Warsaw in 1920.

Our fans have
already made it to the Polish police reports, so that the UEFA started the
disciplinary investigation in regard Russia. Football Union of Russia was even forced
to remind our fans about the need to “respect themselves, their Motherland and
their team”. Russian delegation has made a diplomatic gesture, bringing flowers
to the memorial board for the Smolensk catastrophe victims, but the unpleasant
feeling of a major international scandal coming our way still overhangs Polish
capital.